beetle looks somewhat like a land turtle, with its thick rounded shell. The model is large enough to hold a cigar in its mouth, which gives a further idea of the enormous size of the reproduction. On the other hand, the body of the scale is quite graceful in form and its wings. resemble lace, so delicate are they in appearance, but the long legs and huge eyes of the creature cause it to bear a slight resemblance to a lobster. The ugliest of all this family of imitation bugs, however, is a design of the larva of the lady bug, which looks like a worm from whose skin project sharp spines resembling miniature tree trunks. This was one of the most difficult models to complete. On the other hand, the plant louse has so few legs and feelers that it is one of the easiest specimens to reproduce. Yet, as is well known, this living mite is one of the greatest foes of the farmer, since it gets into the green kernels of wheat and other grain and kills them by absorbing the moisture. It is estimated that the louse has destroyed $10,000,000 worth of worth of cereals in a single season. By means of the models the distinction between the various species of mosquitoes can be clearly traced with the eye unaided. The specimens in the collection include the variety supposed to carry the germs of fever, the comparatively harmless singing mosquito and the kind which is believed to spread malaria. It would be difficult even for an expert to detect the difference in the actual insect unaided by the microscope, but as already stated, the models make the distinction plain. As a matter of fact, the more harmless of the series might be considered the most dangerous, for it is much uglier in appearance than the others, with its spotted legs and BEES FILLING THE HONEY-COMB. scraggy body. The anopheles, which has such an evil reputation for its bite, is the most innocent in appearance. An idea of the many times which the insects have been magnified can be gained when it is stated that the smallest mosquito is more than twice the length of an ordinary straw hat measured from the ends of its fore legs to the ends of the hind ones. The chinch bug, almost invisible in life, is reproduced in the collection much larger than a pair of cuffs, while its eggs, microscopic in their natural proportions, are as large as shotgun cartridges. the purpose of exterminating the bollweevil of the cotton. The kelep is not really an ant, but, more properly speaking, ant-like. It is, in fact, a species entirely new to science, a social insect related to the wasps. At home in Guate THE CODLING MOTH, WHOSE LARVE ARE VERY DESTRUCTIVE TO FRUIT One of the most curious of these giant models is a cockchafer, that has the peculiarity of opening, so as to show the "inside works" of the insect. It is merely necessary to undo a little catch at the back and another on the stomach in order to separate the affair into two parts. One is surprised, thereupon, to discover what elaborate machinery a bug requires for the control of its physical economy. It would seem, on off-hand consideration, to be a great waste of ingenuity, but, then, we should realize that if numbers count insects are really much more important creatures in the world than we ourselves, who, comparatively speaking, are only a few. Mrs. Heidemann mala it dwells in colonies of 300 or 400 individuals in burrows under ground. Though harmless to man, the kelep is a ferocious creature of prey. The bollweevil, however, is its chosen game and its habit is to wait patiently on a twig of the cotton plant until the victim comes along, thereupon pouncing upon it, stinging it to helplessness and eating it. Some of the insects present very curious problems -for example, the codling moth, which is the mother of the worin that is so disagreeably common in the apple. Examined under a strong magnifier, the whole of its body is seen to be covered with what looks like feathers, and to counterfeit these on a large scale is no easy task. As for the worm, it is a comparatively simple matter, the model, two feet in length, being made in clay or plaster and reproduced in composition of a yellowish color. These two, together with an enormous half of an apple, worm-eaten inside, serve quite nicely to illustrate this particular insect, which does an amount of damage in LADY BUG SMOKING A CIGAR. this country estimated at $20,000,000 annually. The object of constructing the models described is, as has been said, to illustrate bug problems in such a way as to make them easy to understand the insects chosen for the purpose being in every case of species important to man, economically or otherwise. Of course, the mosquito and the house-fly possess no economic importance, but the former is a nuisance and both of them are conspicuous as agents in the spreading of disease. Without mosquitoes there would probably be no malaria and no yellow fever; as for the fly, it undoubtedly spreads typhoid fever, affording the principal means by which that malady is rendered epidemic in camps. Bred in the filth of stables, it goes thence directly to our houses, bringing various unpleasant and dangerous germs, which it transfers to the food upon the tables. be ing of the body is a composition which is a secret, but every tiny hair is on the exterior of the body just as it is seen under the microscope on the real thing. Most of the insect wings are composed of very fine celluloid, which can be cut and bent into the natural form. When she starts to work on an insect model Mrs. Heidemann first makes a MRS. OTTO HEIDEMANN. WHO HAS MADE FOR HERSELF A CAREER, BY CONSTRUCTING ARTIFICIAL BUGS. Though she uses few tools and her materials are very simple, it is interesting to see Mrs. Heidemann make the monstrous bugs. With fine steel wire she shapes bills, legs, feelers and sometimes the framework of the body. Upon this foundation can glued papier mache, which forms the skin. Sometimes the wire is covered with a composition that looks like gutta percha. It is melted and then molded into the part it represents, the wire helping to stiffen it. While worms can be easily reproduced in clay glazed over and then tinted in the natural colors, to make the mosquito or peach scale very light material must be used. The whole skeleton of the mosquito is formed of wire, including legs and bill. The cover A MOSQUITO AS BIG AS A HAT. drawing of the same proportions as the model. This is executed from a bug placed under her microscope and carefully studied as to shape and proportions. It takes a long time to finish the drawing, but when it is completed she has a pattern which saves much time in modeling. Perhaps she first makes the legs, then the wings and after all the body, joining the other parts to it. Again she may make the legs as a part of the body. It depends on the structure of the insect. So delicate is the work that a month may be occupied in finishing a weevil or mosquito, but it is too trying to keep at continuously and like a painter or sculptor, Mrs. Heidemann works a few hours at a time and then gives her brain and hands a rest. But though Mrs. Heidemann has modeled over a score of insect pests on a mammoth scale, she has covered but a few of these tiny foes of humanity, as the list of living atoms that attack trees, shrubs and plants runs into the hundred. |